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Lebanese Women Detained In Syria

Submitted by admin on Wed, 07/16/2014 - 10:49

Halimeh Al-Masry
Father’s name: Wadih
Mother’s name: Gharibeh
Date and place of birth: 1960, Lebanon.
Halimeh was arrested on the 10th of December 1996. She was accused of 1st degree murder. She received the death penalty from the Criminal Court of Rif Damascus according to the Syrian delegation at the Joint Lebanese – Syrian Commission for the Missing that was established in 2005. The Syrian delegation informed their Lebanese counterparts that Halimeh was executed after she received the death penalty. The Syrian answer was given to us and we asked the commission to ask for her body in order to be repatriated to Lebanon. After months of several meetings the Syrian delegation came back with a different answer. They acknowledged that there was a mistake and that Halimeh was not executed and her sentence was reduced from death penalty to life imprisonment and that she has been imprisoned at the women’s prison in Douma since 19 December 2002. A document number /234/1/3/16919, dated 5/4/2006 from the Syrian Ministry of Interior states that Halimeh was sentenced to death penalty but there was no mention of the reduction of the sentence to life imprisonment.
Halimeh Al-Masry’s case is a clear example of how the Syrian authority deals with the issue of the Lebanese who are detained in Syria. Her case was discussed in an official commission in 2010 yet the Syrian authorities are persistent in their denial of the presence of any Lebanese in Syrian prisons. The Syrian delegation did not deliver Halimeh to the Lebanese delegation and until now there is no word about Halimeh’s fate and whereabouts in the